


Best Man Speech

by SuperChorifly



Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Boys In Love, Crack Treated Seriously, F/M, Fluff, M/M, Social Media, Song: WAP (Cardi B ft. Megan Thee Stallion), This Is STUPID, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:22:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26853634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuperChorifly/pseuds/SuperChorifly
Summary: It's a wonderful thing, Ash and Eiji are getting married, the only problem?Almost nobody belives them.Or: How everyone reacts to those two tying the knot featuring Shorter singing and Eiji's sister's TikTok account.
Relationships: Ash Lynx/Okumura Eiji, Lee Yut-Lung & Sing Soo-Ling, Max Lobo/Jessica Randy
Comments: 16
Kudos: 154





	Best Man Speech

Sometimes it felt like they had been waiting for this day for forever. Like from the moment they first met, every single thing, good and bad, had been leading them to this.

They chose spring, if anything, because Ash loved the idea of Eiji surrounded by colorful flowers and life, though he wouldn’t ever say that out loud. Eiji had complained about allergies and about the short span of time that left them for actually planning the wedding.

“We’re not eloping, Ash” He had said sternly like the absolute killjoy he was, not even 30 minutes after the proposal. It was half past four in the morning and they were still in their pajamas, Eiji’s eyes were puffy from happy-crying and lack of sleep and Ash’s face hurt from smiling so much.

“But it’s always been my dream to be married by a Vegas Elvis, though” He whined, though his tone lacked the power to make it sound realistic, he felt so giddy.

Eiji swatted at him with barely any force, letting his hand fall against Ash’s chest lazily instead of actually hitting him, they were sprawled uncomfortably on the couch, a mess of long limbs and half formed cuddles. His head was on Ash’s shoulder, his fluffy black hair tickling his cheek and he didn’t even have the decency to look at him as he snorted.

“I left home for over a year without even a phone call. If I’m married by Elvis without telling them my mom is going to disown me” He yawned “I can’t get disowned, I want her rice cooker” he said with finality. Ash laughed, he just couldn’t stop laughing. He felt like he could be laughing forever.

“You would deny me from my dream wedding just to get a rice cooker?” He feigned indignation.

“To get _us_ a rice cooker!” He was quick to argue “It’s a very good rice cooker and you can burn boiled water. We need it so we don’t starve”

“Hmm” Ash closed his eyes and rested his head on top of Eiji’s –his fiancé. “Ok, we won’t elope” He was ready to fall sleep right on the spot, rock hard couch be damned.

They had no rings, the proposal was spontaneous and not so much a proposal as a quiet declaration of wanting to spend all their lives together (gooey and embarrassing –They wouldn’t have it any other way), so it takes people a while to realize they aren’t actually joking when they start inviting and planning for a wedding.

It causes more than one problem.

  1. _The flower girl_



He rolls his eyes so hard he could see his brain. He had come to accept the fact that Ash was not the beautiful beast he had pegged him for when they first met. The blond man was apparently no mastermind and by no means his paralel, but instead a pathetic love sick idiot with, frankly, terrible taste in men. But Ash Lynx getting married? That just couldn’t be true, nothing more than a good joke.

Though that should have been a clue; Ash and Eiji were never that funny.

So he is wiping tears from the corners of his eyes doing his best not to smudge his eyeliner as the world’s most annoying couple sits in front of him, disgustingly happy smiles on their disgustingly happy faces and maybe he was a little drunk, he was on his third champagne glass after all, because for some reason his brain decides it’s an acceptable thing to do to open his mouth and say:

“Right! If you two are going to be husbands then I’ll be your fucking flower girl!” He finishes off his third –fourth? glass and deciding those two are just being too ridiculous for him to care anymore and stands up on wobbly legs to go looking for Sing, he must be around the pool tables hanging off Shorter’s arm or whatever.

“Would you really!?” Eiji asks excitedly, huge doe eyes freaking sparkling, god that man was insufferable. Ash looked _alarmed_ , like a man watching a car crash happen in slow motion "That would be perfect! My sister said she wouldn’t do it, so we were thinking of asking Michael, but since you offered!”

Yut Lung laughed again _(Was Eiji actually funny?)_ and rolled his eyes “Sure, I’ll do it. Cross my heart” He drawled drawing an X over his chest. Ash chugs his beer and sighs.

Of course when Ash and Eiji show up actually wearing matching rings a few weeks later, Yut Lung screams bloody murder at them.

  1. _The father of the groom._



“So yeah, I say we should get married by Elvis at Las Vegas, but Eiji wants the wedding to be at this shrine near his home. What did you say it was called?” Ash turned to look at the man eating beside him with an expression Max could only describe as besotted.

“It’s the Izumo Taisha Miyako Inari shrine!” The Japanese boy answered excitedly, eyes rarely wandering from Ash’s even when he was talking to the rest of the table. _Honestly, those two deserved each other-_ Max thought with a smile. “I used to go there with my grandparents; it’s really beautiful and smaller than Izumo Taisha, so it won’t be too crowded”

“Does it have an Elvis, though?”

Ash jumped at his seat, presumably from Eiji kicking him under the table. Max felt warmth spreading inside his chest in a way only proud parents could experience and shared a bemused look with Jessica.

It was hard sometimes to reconcile the hardened seventeen year old gang leader he met in prison and the shy, awkward looking kid Ibe had dragged from Japan with the two happy and healthy young men sitting in front of them. Most Thursday’s afternoons he would catch himself thinking it couldn’t be possible how they all went from fighting teeth and nails to be able to make it to the end of each day, with a thousand threats haunting them to having a scheduled dinner every week in which they discussed menial things like work and studies and how terrible traffic was.

Right now Max found himself pleasantly surprised and perhaps a tiny bit emotional with how open they were discussing the future of their relationship. He remembers Ash being eighteen and living in hiding with Eiji; every time they met for coffee and plotting Ash would leave and each time it felt like it might be the last time he saw him, the kid would have that look on his face, like he was living in borrowed time. Now when he left after dinner they would just say _‘Seeya next week’_ and know it was true.

Back then Ash had to hide Eiji on a cage just to keep him somewhat safe, every part of their relationship had been used against them and now they talked of weddings and bickered over Max’s attempt at homemade pasta. He might be tearing up just a little, but hid it behind his glass of water.

“Where is the Giz- Izoo…The shrine?” Michael asked, his blue eyes were shinning like a couple of stars like they always did when Ash visited. In turn Ash stopped his banter with Eiji and smiled warmly at the boy.

“It’s in Japan, where Eiji grew up before coming here” He explained calmly.

“You are going to love it, especially in spring, when the _sakura_ blooms” Eiji said.

“I can go too!?” Michael was almost fully out of his sit with both hands firmly planted on the table, his pasta forgotten and that only stung Max a little. He laughed anyway at his son naivety, obviously Ash and Eiji were talking way into the future so he there was no need to be so excited right now.

“Of course, I’m gonna need a best men, won’t I?” Ash said, only encouraging Michael’s excitement “You have to ask your folks first, though”

“Mommy, daddy can we go? Please, please, please, please!” Now it was Jessica and he the ones at the end of their son puppy eyes, which were unfairly powerful and Max was incredibly weak against them.

“Sure, we’ll all go. Right, sweetheart?”

Jessica sent him an unimpressed look at being left with the final say, but she recovered quickly “Of course, love. When the time comes we’ll all go”

“You can even cut school since its on spring! Can’t he, sweetheart?”

Now it was his turn to get kicked under the table, only his better half was wearing high heels and didn’t know the word compassion, Ash and Eiji were cackling from the other side of the table. Jessica looked actually annoyed at him now, but it was all fine, it’s not like they were _really_ going to go to Japan any time soon, so he settled with smiling pleadingly at his beloved ex-wife, joining his best attempt at puppy eyes with his son’s. She rolled her eyes at him.

“Sure, what the hell” Michael whooped, Jessica sighed and rubbed her temples.

“That’s so great!” Eiji clapped his hands looking elated “You should start looking at flight tickets soon! The wedding is in early April”

“Better start calling the school to let them know too” Ash chipped in.

Silence.

One moment. Then two.

Max’s smile froze on his face as he slowly assessed the boys in front of him, then look at Jess, back at the boys.

“Wait what?” At the very least Jessica looked just as dumbfounded as he was. Eiji and Ash stared at them confused at the mood shift in the room.

“You were serious?”

“Of course we are” Eiji frowned at him, looking at Ash with alarm, as if to confirm he wasn’t missing anything.

That was the moment all the warmth evaporated and dread settled in. A dread so profound and bone-chilling that only parents of particularly rash and wild children could experience.

  1. _The voice of reason._



“Wait, so it’s true!? This wasn’t all a joke!?” She could actually feel her voice go an octave higher.

“Yes?” Eiji was looking more bewildered by the second.

“You are actually getting married? As in rings and tuxedoes married?”

“Well, I don’t know about a tuxedo, I really wanted more of a traditional Shinto wedding” Eiji pondered out loud.

“What’s the matter, grandma? You going senile on us?” Ash smirked effectively shaking her out of her trance and forcing her to reach over the salads and slap him upside the head. It said a lot about how much things had changed the fact that she caught him by surprise and made him squeak.

“This is what you want to marry, Ei-chan?” She asked with only somewhat feigned honesty. She loved Ash and she loved how he treated her son and how he brought up the best in Max, but dear lord was he infuriating.

Sadly Eiji got the most smitten look on his face as he looked at the blond. His voice was soft and filled with young love when he answered “Definitely”

Oh well. Max still looked constipated at the news while Michael was simply vibrating with excitement and the young men in front of her looked very much in love –what else was there to do?

“But you’re babies!!” She cried, mostly just to be a pain.

“I’m twenty three!!” Eiji fought back.

“Yeah and I just turned 22” Ash said defensively.

“Babbies gatting married!” She exclaimed acting as if she didn’t hear a word they said “Just enjoy your youth! You’re too young to give up your freedom; you don’t want someone to take all your best years! You’ll regret it forever!”

“Aww I love you too, honey” Max scoffed crossing his arms over his chest, she wasn’t sure if he was actually hurt or not so she winked at him, her hand reaching for his and intertwining their fingers.

“My best years will be all the ones I get to spend with him”

Ash’s voice cut through their little argument, quieting them down completely. She couldn’t help but feel a little shocked at the sincerity he spoke with and by the looks on his face, so was Max. Not Eiji, though; he looked like a man who knew what he was hearing was true and also shared the sentiment. She couldn’t be sure, but she believed she saw them holding hands under the table too.

“Yuck! You are just as gross as mom and dad!” Michael cried before leaving the table to go play outside.

  1. _The photographer._



Sunichi officially works from 8 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon Mondays to Thursdays, leaving him plenty of free time to do research, edit work and some freelance on the side. Oh and of course it also left him with time to spend with his darling wife.

That was a load of bull, though. How his week really went down was work from 8 in the morning to whatever time he finished working that day which was never earlier than 5. He also went in on Saturdays so he had more alone time to work on articles, especially after his ‘Gang activity in New York’ article had done so well with the readers.

Sundays were devoted to his family, he and his wife Kiyo had taken up to picking his niece Akira from his brother’s house each Sunday morning and take the girl out or simply having her over at their place so her parents could have some much needed alone time and could hopefully work on their issues.

He loved Akira, but all of that also left him with a single truly off day in the week, therefore Fridays were sacred in his house. Neither he nor his wife were early birds and Friday mornings were the only ones they both got to sleep in.

All that said, it’s no wonder that when his phone starts ringing loudly at 6:48 in the morning on his beloved Friday mornings, his wife doesn’t even hesitate to literally kick him off the bed, not even opening her eyes as she curses at him to _just hung up already!!_

The floor is cold and his phone is way too bright, but when he sees it’s a video call from Max, he deftly walks off the bedroom and to the balcony to answer. After all that’s happened in New York Sunichi has a very hard time not panicking every time his old friend calls him unexpectedly.

The moment he answers he regrets it. He’s met with an assault of noise and movement and he swears Kiyo shushes him all the way from their bedroom when Max, ever composed, decides it is a reasonable thing to do to open their conversation with:

“DID YOU KNOW!?” Followed by a mess of ‘married’, ‘children’ and an uncoherent bundle of words, his mind is still pretty much sleep, but he has known Max for years now and can get the gist of what he’s saying.

“Yeah Eiji called me” He replies, his voice hoarse and half stifling a yawn. He can hear the single mother of three next door rousing her kids for school and laments every second he’s not spending in bed unconscious to all that.

“YOU KNEW” Max bellows, he’s holding his phone way too close to his face like he was at least ten years older than he actually was. Ibe can find it in himself to react to it anymore.

“Yes”

“AND YOU DIDN’T TELL ME”

“That’s right” He starts rubbing his temples when more voices join the call.

“What’s with all the yelling, old man!?”

“Is that Sunichi?”

The image on his phone moves wildly once more and now he’s granted with a more complete look of Max’s disgruntled face, he’s on his kitchen where Jessica and Ash could be seen on the upper left corner of Sunichi’s screen.

“Hello, Jess, Hey, Ash” He waves meekly, hoping his tone and lax body movements give them a clue of how much he doesn’t want to be on this call right now.

“You knew and had nothing to say about it??” Max, on typical Max fashion, can’t take a hint.

“Look, Max, honestly I’m done trying to get them to do anything other than what they chose to do. They’ll just find a way to do what they want and what they want is each other, they’re young but I’m sure they’ll make it work. If anything Eiji is bull-headed enough to carry that marriage on his own” He stretches his back and several bones pop loudly, yet he can still hear a tiny and outraged _‘Hey!’_ from the other line.

“Hello, Ei-chan”

Despite hating every second of wakefulness he can still feel himself smiling at the loud laughter and annoyed bickering that ensues from the two boys, he hasn’t seen them in a while and even if most of their experiences together were traumatic and fed hours and hours of therapy once he returned to Japan, he does love them.

Max seems to be thinking much of the same, because he says “Guess you’re right” somewhat dejectedly.

“Besides, we’re not the ones they should be afraid of breaking the news to, have you told your mother yet, Ei-chan?” He asks knowingly, Ibe isn’t even surprised when he catches a glimpse of a very pale Eiji frozen in the middle of swatting a increasingly nervous Ash’s shoulder.

There is silence. Ibe sighs.

“Thought so… She already hates me, I’m not dealing with that again. Now can I _please_ go to sleep?”

“Sunichi, wait!” Max calls put then when Ibe is about to hang up on all of them. The older man puts on his most charming smile “Can we stay with you for the wedding?”

“No” Max gasps dramatically.

“I live in a two bedroom with my pregnant wife, get a hotel Lobo, you’re the grown up here”

  1. _The mother of the groom (ft. annoying little sister)_



Honestly, Eiji should have known the first words out of his mother’s mouth were “You better not be thinking about eloping!”

“Wouldn’t even joke about it!!” Ash laughs manically earning himself an unimpressed raised eyebrow from his mother, her signature move to scare people off that was doing a pretty good job of making Ash Lynx, former gangster of New York, great shooter and genius extraordinaire break into a sweat. Eiji hits him with his elbow. Ash laughs harder, but Eiji’s mom’s stare soon quiets him down, even from Eiji’s computer screen she looks every bit as commanding and intimidating as he knows her.

Eiji hopes he achieves even a fraction of her authority someday.

In the screen he can see her sister sniggering and he wishes he hadn’t told her about their ‘proposal’ in so much detail. He also wishes he could reach across the screen and pull her hair; Eiji shoots her a venomous look that only makes her continue to laugh discretely under her hand. Next to him, Ash is close to hyperventilating and it warms Eiji’s heart just a little bit to see brave, sure of himself, Ash turn into a worrying mess over getting his mother’s approval.

It’s certainly been a journey for all of them and even if it pained him to see his mom and his soulmate take to each other like a dog and a particularly apprehensive cat, Eiji wasn’t so unaware as to not understand his mother even a little bit.

She had had to raise him and his sister almost completely on her own after their dad took off to gods know where with gods know who and in all of his life he had never heard her complain even once. Sure, she was strict and protective, but she provided them both with endless understanding and love, she didn’t say a word to him when he dropped out of college after his injury and wouldn’t come out of his room for literal days with only the bathroom being an exception, she had held him as he cried over a future he no longer had and kissed him on the forehead when he took off to a foreign land.

She had been rewarded for all of that almost two years later with a slightly older and thinner son who had to be wheeled back into her home, endure months of physical therapy, nightmares and crying, so much visceral, desperate crying when he thought Ash had left this world for good.

He would never blame Ash for all of that, there was evidence to clear, information to secure, lives to save and he wouldn’t have been able to do that if everyone knew he was still alive. It had taken him months before Ash deemed it safe enough to begin contact again, even longer to find them where they were, sitting side by side on their couch with teacups on coasters in their coffee table, with matching rings and security and _trust._

His mom couldn’t see all that, couldn’t possibly begin to understand, but she did her best and so he could forgive a couple of nasty looks and proving questions as long as it all remained among the realm of respect and to never attack Ash. He could also forgive her embarrassing him in front of his sister (who would undoubtedly make fun of him forever) and his fiancé _(his fiancé)._

“This better not be joke. You take good care of my baby.” She said resolutely in stilted english.

 _“Oka-san!”_ Eiji exclaims feeling heat pool on his face as his sister explodes in giggles, no longer trying to be discreet.

Ash doesn’t mind any of that and sits up straight, eyes going almost comically wide “Yes ma’am, I- I mean– _Hai! Okumura san!”_

 _“He will”_ Eiji can’t help himself as he looks at Ash and smiles, he even feels wetness threatening to spill behind his eyes, because _“I love him. I really do and he loves me too”_ Ash finally breaks his staring contest with the pixelated rendition of his mother and smiles back at him like he could understand every word he just said, he looks at him with so much adoration Eiji feels humbled “ _I just really want you to love him too, Ka-san”_ He says finally and he knows he’s being unfair, because after that there is no way his mom would ever object.

She sighs and rubs her temples _“Tell your boy to call me Oka-san, your grandmother made my life miserable, I’m_ not _going to be like that_ ”

Eiji laughs happily, he barely remembers his grandmother on his father side, but if she had any role on his mom accepting Ash then he was sure to remember sending a prayer her way. Maybe not, he wasn’t sure what ‘ _made my life miserable’_ entailed, he should find that out first, for now he translates.

 _“Hai… O-oka-san!”_ Ash stumbles with his words.

“Good” She concedes in english, takes a sip of her tea and waits for them to do it too “So when grandchildren?”

They both choke on their boiling tea and she hides her smile on her cup. It may not be punishment enough for all that time of radio silence back in the U.S, but it was a start.

  1. _The best man/main performer_



“Dudes!! I totally have to sing at your wedding!!”

Different from almost everyone else, Shorter believed them right away and maybe this time they were all a little bit drunker, because instead of shooting that sure-to-be-disaster down immediately, Eiji’s eyes widened, surprise coloring his features.

“Shorter, you can sing??” Eiji sounds so shocked it should probably be a bit offensive, but Shorter will let it slide in favor of him being one of his best friends and of looking cute when surprised.

“Can I sing?” Shorter scoffs as he slings a heavy arm over his friend’s shoulders, pulling him from the bar and towards where Sing is chatting animatedly with his pet snake. Said snake’s eyes turned from happy to cold and disdainful in a second when he saw them coming. Shorter only smirked wider. “Hey pipsqueak, tell Ei-chan here I can sing”

Sing is quick as a whip “He definitely can’t sing, don’t ever trust him” Yut Lung actually snorts at that and he doesn’t even look murderous afterwards. They must all be way drunker than he previously thought, but that was Fridays for you.

“Sing is a traitor, completely unreliable” Shorter claims shoving his hand into Sing’s face, pushing him out of Eiji’s line of sight. The young Japanese laughs and shakes his head.

“Hey, Wong! Take your dirty hands off my husband” Ash appears as out of thin air pushing Shorter’s arm off Eiji and replacing it with his own. Eiji blushes at the action, but he still melts against the other’s side as he nurses his drink.

“Hey, he’s not your husband yet, you jerk, someone can still snatch’im away!” He laughs and shots back his drink. Ash’s arm tightens his hold and he eloquently sticks his tongue out.

“Shorter was just saying he was a good singer and Sing says it’s a lie” Eiji informs his fiancé, ever the peacemaker, his voice is only slurring a little bit.

_(For years to come Ash would claim that what he says next would be the thing he regrets saying the most in his entire life)_

“Oh, yeah he can sing. The problem is getting him to shut up, though”

Shorter perks up and looks excitedly at Eiji. The black haired boy squinted at him for a moment of two as if considering him before the brightest smile appears on his face “Ok, you can sing at our wedding, Shorter”

Shorter whoops loudly as Ash chokes on his drink and hacks it out painfully, Yut Lung looks something between amused and disgusted meanwhile Sing just looks disheartened. Eiji simply smiles at him, god blessed him.

“Whoa wait, don’t I get a say on this?” Ash sounds equal parts pained and alarmed.

“But I already said he could do it, you say he sings good, what’s the problem?” Eiji asks frowning as he takes a step back from Ash. God, Shorter loves drunk Eiji, he had plenty of moods depending on how drunk he was, apparently right now they were in the presence of confrontational-drunk-Eiji, the one who made a racist guy cry at the bar and the one who once called Yut Lung a bitch to his face.

“I don’t know, but he’s going to do something, I know it!” Ash yells accusingly. Shorter just smiles sweetly at him from over Eiji’s head and winks. Ash’s eyes go like saucers “See! He just winked!! He’s planning something!”

“How can you tell, he’s wearing sunglasses?” Eiji questions placing his hands on his hips, now turning to face Ash fully and giving his back to Shorter, allowing him to stick his tongue at a bewildered, if increasingly resigned, Ash “You have an opinion on everything I chose for the wedding, but you barely help with the actual planning of it! Do you want to deal with invitations, sitting, food and about who sings? Because it doesn’t look like it”

“You don’t even know what he’s gonna sing!” Ash argues weakly.

Shorter was having the time of his life, it never really got old to watch his best friend being torn a new one by his tiny, cutesy boyfriend (fiancé). Ash knew as much as any of them that there was no fighting confrontational-drunk-Eiji so he simply sighed, looking like a man coming home after a war. Haunted.

“Fine, whatever, do whatever you like, just don’t get me involved on any of… That” He said gesturing vaguely at Shorter.

Eiji finally smiled and downed the rest of his drink, effectively killing both the conversation and confrontational-drunk-Eiji (making way for just-wants-to-dance-drunk-Eiji, who was also a blast to be around).

_The wedding_

“I can’t believe I actually did that, how on earth did you get me to actually do that”

Yut Lung on his traditional clothes and looking livid brought back painful memories, but none of that could put a dent on tonight. Not after joining himself to the love of his life in his homeland, in front of his family and their friends.

“Eiji made me ask Shorter to ask Sing to ask you nicely and you folded like a cheap suit” Ash reminded him as he tried to remind himself why he thought it was a good idea to begin a conversation with Yut Lung of all people, on his wedding and with no mediators.

“Shit” Yut Lung cursed and without another word he walked away from him, despite the front he actually took his job to heart and wore the flower crown elegantly. Ash wasn’t sure how Eiji got the priest to allow them to have a ‘flower girl’ on a traditional Shinto wedding, but then again, traditional Shinto weddings weren’t between two men, so Ash reckoned the man must be pretty open-minded.

It may not be a ‘legal’ wedding per-se, but it followed Eiji’s culture and beliefs, it was shared with their loved ones and it was theirs, besides they had a date to get a wedding license back in the U.S once they returned. Everything was way more than Ash could have ever had imagined and he honestly believed nothing could put a dent on his mood that day.

Sing was in the middle of trying to communicate with Eiji’s little sister and Ibe-san’s niece, both of them a few years younger than him. He guesses that’s the reason why he got seated with them instead of in a more ‘grown-ups table’ where even Yut Lung was allowed and he was only a year older than Sing and the only other two english speakers on the table, Michael and Skipper, had zoomed off with another boy and a girl from Eiji’s family and were currently running around the tables and across the dancefloor playing tag.

To make matters worse, he knew little to no Japanese, although to the girls’ credit, they knew some words in english and were both pretty good in getting their point across with noises and hand gestures. He could say he was actually having fun with them; Eiji’s sister, Wakaba, was expressive and fun, even with a language barrier and Ibe-san’s niece, Akira, was bold and kinda grumpy-looking which he could get behind.

Still, when he saw Shorter passing by, he took his opportunity to join a more cohesive conversation. He smiled and waved politely to the girls who waved him goodbye too before they started talking quickly amongst themselves and fiddling with a phone.

“Hey there, pipsqueak, were you having fun or were you just trying to make your boyfriend jealous?” Shorter grinned at him behind his trademark shades.

“What? Yut Lung is not my boyfriend! I told you we’re just friends!” Sing sputters a little louder than he should if the looks he got from Eiji’s aunts was anything to go by and feels himself go red at the attention.

“I never said Yut Lund, did I?” Sing wanted to punch the sleazy smile right off Shorter’s face, especially after he waggled his eyebrows at him.

“Whatever” He mumbles wanting to change the topic more than anything “So what are you gonna sing? He asks.

“You know that little song you tried to dance to the other day?”

“I- I wasn’t! that’s not-! You know the guys dared me to-!” Sing halts to a stop in the middle of his tirade to gawk at his boss “… Wait… you’re not serious right?”

“Course I am” Shorter replied plopping an appetizer on his mouth.

“There’s no way they let you do it”

“Eiji said yes, I sang a part of it to him already and he said he loved it” Shorter smirked.

“Eiji doesn’t know what it means! Ash will never let you” Sing felt oddly like he was trying to talk Shorter off a suicide mission.

“He said he didn’t want any part on it!” Shorter reminded him gleefully.

It didn’t make any sense, there was no way Shorter would do that. Not in front Eiji’s mom and his ninety two year old grandmother, not in front of the impressionable children and in front of Ash who, best friend or not, would surely shoot Shorter before he even got to the chorus. Besides, why would Shorter, after all Ash and Eiji had gone through, do such a bizarre thin at their _wedding?_

Sing analyzed him for a moment “You’re pulling my leg!” It had to be a joke, just one more of Shorter’s jokes.

Shorter winks.

Sing feels his stomach drop.

  1. _Sister of the groom/best ‘man’/upcoming viral tiktoker_



Wakaba was never gladder of anything as she was of downloading the app. Akira had recommended it to her, her parents didn’t let her have it yet since she was ‘too young for social media’ or whenever, even if she was already thirteen and only a year younger than Wakaba.

Whatever, Wakaba had downloaded it and shared the account with the younger girl whenever they could, mostly to send each other funny videos, but eventually to make their own.

They usually got from 10 to 200 likes in a video depending on cheer luck, their least watched one was of a tiktok dance they had spent hours rehearsing, the most watched one was a video of them messing up while practicing said dance, shortly followed by a montage of their pets being cute.

After the Chinese-American boy, _Sing_ , left their table they soon forgot to socialize and dived right into the app, cooing at videos of frogs and laughing at wacky stories different users reenacted. Wakaba was trying out a new sparkly filter on Akira and on the centerpiece when they were called for attention.

It was one of the friends Ei-chan had made in the U.S, the ridiculously tall one with the amazing hair that Aki-chan had been enthralled by since the moment they first saw him. The hair, that is. She and Aki-chan had asked her _Onii-chan_ to ask the boy to let them touch his hair, they wanted to know how he got it to stand up; they were betting on it being a wig or real hair, but Ei-chan had said no and reprimanded them for thinking of doing that to strangers that could feel uncomfortable by their curiosity, granted, their mom had been staring at them warily from a few meters over, so she would forgive him for now.

Either way, her brother was sort of lame sometimes. He was also incredibly happy; when he left Japan it had felt like he hadn’t seen him happy for years. Then she didn’t see him at all for almost two and when he did return it was like a husk of the brother she tried to remember, it was like all happiness had been drained out of him.

At first she had taken her mother’s lead and hated Ash for taking her brother for so long and returning him like that, but she could never hold a grudge for too long. Hatred turned into sadness over her brother’s condition and now she was just filled with joy at seeing him smile and bicker with his husband. It was like he used to be years ago, but more; livelier, louder, brighter and Ash only brought more and more of that on.

She called the blond boy _Aniki_ in no time if only to make him feel welcome whenever her mom would send distrustful looks his way. The first time that happened he had almost teared up which had made her uncomfortable.

Eiji never really explained to her the whole story, she doubted he ever would, but she was fine with that, she could gather than Ash was hurt by a lot of things and she could see the weight lift off his shoulders day by day spent near her brother. He was a curious person; he was smart enough to help her on all her subjects except Japanese and history, yet when she asked how an U.S highschool was he said he didn’t know, he was unfairly attractive, but when she had tried to make a video of him, he had gasped and had a panic attack.

She had felt horribly guilty and afraid, so she had locked herself on her room and cried until she fell asleep that night. They had come a long way since then, they had both apologized to the other and he had accepted her weepy hug after, now she cared to never shoot a camera his way unless Eiji was around and asked first and now he said yes more often than not.

He had allowed cameras at the party, so she didn’t worry herself too much when she pointed her phone’s camera to the purple-haired boy taking the microphone. He said somethings in english that made the people around them laugh and her brothers flush redder and redder, then he said something that had everyone tearing up, including her mom which was a whole event all on itself.

He finished talking and they all clapped at him the same way they had clapped at her when she had stuttered her own best ‘person’ speech, though she knows she had been much less eloquent and funny than Ash’s best man, but she would blame that on age and internalized misogyny. Eiji had cried with her words anyway, so she would count it as a success.

When the applause died down, the boy moved to the middle of the dancefloor, microphone in hand and winked at the grooms. Wakaba found herself laughing at that even if Sing, who had taken his sit once the speech began, looked pale and worried. She sent Akira a look and she in turn waved a hand in front of the boy’s face, but he was only looking at the best man who had now began to sing a song.

He had an amazing singing voice and the song sounded beautiful, it had a word that it kept repeating, but it was in english so she couldn’t understand what he was saying, though based on the Anglo-speaker’s reactions, it was something she should record for posterity. She filmed the best man give his all and sing with feeling, but she also made a point of showing Sing’s horrified face, the Chinese boy with beautiful long hair laughing so hard it looked painful and show her brother looking touched and asking to his new husband, barely audible in the video ‘What is WAP?’ to what his husband quickly replies something and shakes his head no, looking astounded at his friend.

Wakaba thought that was nice, her _Onii-chan_ happy and her _Aniki_ looking surprised at his friends talent (she guesses), she didn’t know what to do of the other two reactions, but she uploads it anyway and hashtags it for wedding, singing and that word the song kept repeating. When she showed her phone to Sing and looked at him questioningly to check if she had written it correctly he only managed to look sicker before weakly nodding his head.

The video got over 200K likes.

**Author's Note:**

> I can't believe the logest chapter I've written about anything is about a tiktok I saw and couldn0t stop laughint at at 4 AM, but here we are.  
> I hope you liked it ???? Please leave a comment ??????
> 
> Not included in the fic: Eiji's mom eventually finds out what WAP means and forbids Shorter to see any of her children ever again. Since nobody wants to tell them, Eiji and Wakaba find out what it means together(through the internet) and they laugh so much she cries, she also records their reaction to fiding out and that video also goes viral.  
> Ash kept his cool about it and said he didn't mind for years untill Shorter met someone and got married and when it was his turn to give his best man speech he pulled out a power point pressentation titled "Pinnaple Head".
> 
> Based on this TikTok by @atchnedgy: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZSHmdask/


End file.
